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Dimmu Borgir

Quintessence

Import

With their debut, self-titled album, the band began as a melodic Viking/Black metal outfit, but with The Olden Domain and all subsequent albums the band evolved into a more progressive Viking-themed metal act. Recorded at The Abyss Studios in January 2000, and mixed by Peter TÄgtgren. According to interviews, this album was meant to be a strictly straight-forward black metal album, as shown on the production quality and the fact that ICS Vortex's vocals are more of the traditional black metal screams and growls, with less clean singing. This album marks bassist Kai K Lie's departure from the band, with vocalist ICS Vortex taking over bass duties. It also marks the departure of keyboardist Ivar Bjørnson (being replaced with Lars A. Nedland) and drummer Grim (being replaced with Asgeir Mickelson), who incidentally committed suicide a few months before the album's release. This would also be Vortex's last album as vocalist of Borknagar before quitting the band to join Dimmu Borgir (reportedly due to an ultimatum on Øystein Brun's part).

Codex Omega

Primordial, menacing and majestic; SEPTICFLESH - the gods of orchestral extreme metal - return with their new album, Codex Omega, set for release via Prosthetic Records.

Codex Omega was produced by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Dimmu Borgir) and features 10 tracks of their trademark blend of mystical atmosphere, relentless death guitar riffing and pale melodies. Lyrically and musically, Codex Omega is by far the most infernal release from SEPTICFLESH to date.

Hegemony

SAMAEL have returned, with heavy ammunition wallowing to the darkest fronts. Industrial Black Metal armed with wind sections passes through shivering synthesizers. The stomping bass loses its sense of decency and no grain of dust remains still. On point and frighteningly brutal, fiery whirlwinds of hypnotic hammering riff forces overlay gruesomely gurgling vocals driving you over the edge. Thirty years of the band's history flows into their brilliant eleventh record Hegemony, combining everything that SAMAEL have learned the hard way spanning the decades of their decadence. A colourless bouquet from the withered flowers of BEHEMOTH and DIMMU BORGIR, not for the faint-hearted!

Aspera Hiems Symfonia (Out Of Stock)

• 180 Gram Blue Vinyl

• 1000 Only Limited Edition

Aspera Hiems Symfonia is the debut studio album by Norwegian avant-garde metal band Arcturus

Arcturus was one of the first Norwegian black metal bands to incorporate a large dose of symphonic keyboards to their music, leaving behind the rawness and brutality of their contemporaries at an early stage of their career (there are four re-recorded songs from 1994's Constellation EP in here). In fact, their approach to the newly-born (by that date) symphonic black metal sound is less aggressive and more melodic than the one of Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Limbonic Art and similar bands, having some similarities with atmospheric black metal instead.

The music is mostly mid-paced, with blast-beats only being present briefly on the first track. The keyboards are at the forefront of the music, using symphonic arrangements and/or atmospheric effects. The guitar work is varied enough, playing melodic lines along with the keyboard ones, sometimes being more of a rhythmic instrument, playing either mid-tempo riffs or tremolo-picked ones, and with many songs featuring neoclassical-influenced guitar leads and blistering solos (like the ones on 'To Thou Who Dwellest in the Night' or 'Fall of Man'), where the guitars have their moments to shine.

The drumming is technical and precise, and even though the rhythms are quite basic, Hellhammer spices them up with his characteristic use of cymbals and double bass (to prevent the songs from sounding plodding and slow). Garm hadn't quite developed his charismatic baritone vocal style, and for most of the time in here, he goes for full-on harsh vocals. Actually, his best harsh vocal performance ever is on this record, surpassing (by little) even the one on Ulver's Nattens Madrigal. His screams sound passionate yet spiteful and angry, like the one on 'Raudt og svart', or the THROUGH THE WOOOOOAAAAADDDSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! section of 'Wintry Grey', to name a few. Nevertheless, his clean vocals are still present, but on choral, spoken or whispered sections, and doesn't sound as strong as the ones of posterior works.

Other feature of the record that makes it different from its contemporaries is the progressive approach to songwriting, something that can be evidenced in the frequent time signature shifts and the frequent changes in the structure of the songs, as well as some unusual sounds (like the reversed vocals of 'Whence & Whither Goest the Wind') and odd, quirky (yet not blatantly carnivalesque like the ones on 'La masquerade infernale') melodies, which give it an experimental edge that would be explored with more depth in the subsequent releases of the band.

The thin production (with the airy keyboards, the razor-blade guitars, the metallic, thumping drums, and the echoey vocals) gives the record a cold feeling, and it has this sort of winternight-esque atmosphere, like being in a forest while snowing, contemplating the northern lights (yes, like the ones on the cover) and the stars. This cosmic winter atmosphere gives the music a contemplative, calm and mellow feeling.

The glorious symphonic arrangements, the soaring guitar lines, the emotional but not straightforward or standard songwriting, and the atmosphere are the things that make Aspera Hiems Symfonia so special and one of the most remarkable achievements in the realm of symphonic black metal, an album that manages to be accessible enough to draw new listeners to the genre, but at the same time is one of their most forward-thinking and intriguing works.

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